The short answer
Rate parity means that a hotel must not show a lower price on its own website than on a portal. The Digital Markets Act prohibits designated gatekeepers from imposing such restrictions on business users, and Booking.com was designated a gatekeeper on 13 May 2024. Regardless of price, the route through benefits that can only be booked directly remains open.
Key takeaways
- Wide parity clauses cover all channels, narrow ones only your own website; the difference determines your room to manoeuvre.
- The Digital Markets Act prohibits gatekeepers from forbidding business users to offer different prices and conditions on their own online channels.
- The European Commission designated Booking.com as a gatekeeper on 13 May 2024.
- Benefits such as early arrival, choice of room or flexible cancellation work without a price difference and usually cost less than the commission.
- In Austria, best-price clauses imposed by booking platforms on accommodation providers are void; still have your contract reviewed before you differentiate prices.
Price parity, usually called rate parity in the industry, means that a hotel does not show a lower price on its own website than on a portal. The Digital Markets Act prohibits designated gatekeepers from imposing such restrictions on business users. Booking.com was designated a gatekeeper by the European Commission on 13 May 2024 [Q3].
This does not settle the matter, but it shifts the question. It is no longer "Am I allowed to at all?" but "What makes a guest book directly?" For many hotels, the answer lies not in the price but in what the hotel's own booking website offers in addition. This text does not replace legal review; have your contract and the national legal position checked by a specialist.
What rate parity means
Wide parity obliges a hotel to be no cheaper on any channel than on the portal in question, including other portals. Narrow parity concerns only the hotel's own sales, usually its own website; the earlier narrow clause of Booking.com allowed cheaper offline prices without online advertising [Q7].
Both forms can also cover conditions alongside the room price: cancellation periods, minimum stay, allocations. Anyone who shows the same rate but cancels more generously may already be within the regulated area, depending on the contract wording. Closed user groups, that is regular guests with access details, are often treated separately in contracts. What applies to you depends on the wording of your contract; read the passage before changing anything.
How the position looks under the Digital Markets Act
The Digital Markets Act regulates the conduct of large platforms designated as gatekeepers [Q1]. Under Art. 5(3), a gatekeeper must not prevent business users from offering the same services through other online intermediaries or through their own direct online sales channels at different prices or conditions.
The obligations only affect companies that the Commission has designated; it publishes the list [Q2]. Booking.com was designated on 13 May 2024, after which a gatekeeper has six months to implement the obligations [Q1] [Q3]. National law also applies: in Austria, since the end of 2016, a booking platform may not require accommodation providers to refrain from offering lower prices or better conditions through other sales channels, including their own website; such agreements are absolutely void (§ 1a(4) UWG, Annex Z 32) [Q6]. In Germany, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) declared Booking.com's narrow best-price clauses to be contrary to competition law in 2021 (KVR 54/20) [Q7]. It does not follow that every price differentiation makes sense, only that the price on your own site no longer has to follow the portal as a matter of course. How the commission affects an individual stay is calculated in how the Booking.com commission is calculated.
Which benefits are possible without a price difference
A guest rarely compares cents; they compare what they receive. In hotels, the obvious options are: earlier arrival or later departure subject to availability, choosing the specific room rather than only the category, a parking space, more flexible cancellation periods, breakfast included, a direct contact for special requests. For holiday apartments: early access to the key safe, final cleaning without a surcharge, a basket of basic provisions for late arrivals.
What they all have in common: they are available at your house and cost little money, but they require a commitment that you keep. An early arrival that regularly fails in high season does more harm than a missing benefit. Information available only directly costs almost nothing: photos of the two specific rooms on offer, a note on the quieter wing, details about building work next door.
What this looks like for a 24-room hotel
Let us work with stated assumptions: 24 rooms, 60 percent occupancy, an average of EUR 140 per night. In our example this gives 5,256 occupied nights and around EUR 735,840 in annual revenue. If 40 percent comes via portals, that is EUR 294,336 in our example, and at an assumed 15 percent commission, around EUR 44,150 a year. Take your actual rate from your contract; the model is explained in the Partner Hub [Q4].
If you shift five percent of total revenue to your own website, in our example EUR 36,792, you save around EUR 5,519 in commission. At EUR 140 per night, that corresponds to about 263 nights. If breakfast for two people costs an assumed EUR 8 in food per night, that is around EUR 2,100 in our example; around EUR 3,400 remains before payment fees and the costs of your own booking flow are deducted.
What this looks like for four holiday apartments
Four apartments with 180 occupied nights each at an average of EUR 140 produce, in our example, EUR 100,800 in annual revenue; with five nights per stay, that is EUR 700 per booking. For Airbnb, the rate depends on the fee model described in the help article [Q5]; we assume 15 percent. If 10 percent of revenue moves to your own website, in our example EUR 10,080 or around 14 stays, around EUR 1,512 in commission is saved. A basket of basic provisions at an assumed EUR 15 of food cost costs around EUR 216 for these stays, leaving around EUR 1,300 in our example before payment fees and system costs.
The assumptions are simple: the same price on all channels, food cost instead of full cost, no seasonal shift. They show the order of magnitude: a benefit may be noticeable as long as it stays below the commission saved.
How to word this on the website
Name your own advantages, not other people's disadvantages: "When you book directly, you choose your room yourself" works better than any statement about commissions. Make the benefits concrete and verifiable, and show them where the decision is made: on the room page and in the first step of the booking, as the booking flow without abandonment describes.
How the implementation works with HOHEIT
In HOHEIT's booking flow, the benefits for direct bookers appear in the second step, right next to the price, together with the total price and the cancellation terms. The rates themselves come from your channel manager, so that they are handled consistently across all channels. A hotel website takes eight to fourteen weeks; a Gastgeber website (for hosts) takes four to six weeks from approval of the concept. You decide which benefits you commit to, check your contract and brief the team; we build the presentation and measure how many guests start and complete a booking.
When it is not worth it
If your own booking flow does not work reliably, any price discussion is premature. If your direct share is already high, you give benefits away to guests who would have booked directly anyway. And in fully booked high season, the issue is not the channel but the price.
Next, read the section on prices and conditions in your portal contract and note what it actually says. To discuss implementation on your site, you can book a call.
Sources and further reading
- [Q1] Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 (Digital Markets Act), Publications Office of the EU
- [Q2] EU Commission: list of gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act
- [Q3] EU Commission: designation of Booking as a gatekeeper (13 May 2024)
- [Q4] Booking.com Partner Hub: Understanding our commission
- [Q5] Airbnb Help: Airbnb service fees
- [Q6] RIS: Federal Act against Unfair Competition (Bundesgesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG), § 1a(4) and Annex Z 32
- [Q7] Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof): press release No. 099/2021 on decision KVR 54/20
Häufige Fragen
May I quote a cheaper price on the phone than on the portal?
In Austria, a booking platform may not prohibit this; such clauses are void. The Digital Markets Act only covers online channels, and Booking.com's earlier narrow clause allowed cheaper offline prices without online advertising. What your contracts with other portals provide should be clarified with your lawyer.
What is a closed user group?
A group of people who must log in to see certain rates, for example a regular guest area with access details. Such rates are not publicly available. Whether and how you can use this depends on your specific contract and should be checked before you introduce it.
Do I lose visibility on the portal if I am cheaper directly?
Portals weigh ranking and placement by their own criteria, which they do not fully disclose. A reliable statement about the effect of any single measure is therefore not possible. If you want to avoid this risk, work with benefits rather than prices.
How do I communicate benefits without sounding unconvincing?
With a few concrete commitments that you keep. Four verifiable points are more credible than a long list of restrictions in the small print. Also state what applies if something is unavailable; an honest reservation does less harm than a broken promise.
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